Method for operating a musical instrument

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for operating a musical instrument, especially a keyboard instrument such as a piano. In one embodiment, a keyboard instrument is provided which is operable for producing a musical sound. The keyboard instrument is used in combination with a musical staff on which a musical composition has been recorded. The staff has a structure that corresponds with the arrangement of keys on a keyboard such that notes recorded in spaces on the staff correspond to white keys of the keyboard instrument and notes recorded on lines correspond to black keys of the keyboard instrument. The keyboard instrument is operated by depressing the appropriate corresponding white key for a note recorded on a space of the staff and depressing the appropriate black key for a note recorded on a line of a staff.

I claim: 
     
       1. A method for operating a musical instrument to produce sound from the musical instrument, the method comprising the steps of: providing a musical instrument comprising a keyboard having white and black keys, said musical instrument being operative for producing sound of different pitches by depressing different of said keys;   providing a visually observable staff comprising substantially parallel lines operated in two distinct and separate groups of lines, wherein a first group consists of two lines separated by a first distance and a second group consists of three lines substantially evenly spaced at a distance substantially equal to said first distance, wherein said first group and said second group are separated by a second distance that is larger than said first distance, and wherein two of the three lines of said second group have visually distinctive, individualized appearances relative to all other of said lines of both of said first group and said second group;   wherein spaces next to said lines of said staff represent a first plurality of said pitches, which correspond to pitches produced by depressing white keys of said keyboard and said lines of said staff represent a second plurality of said pitches corresponding to black pitches produced by depressing keys of said keyboard;   providing a plurality of noteheads visually depicted in any of said spaces or on any of said lines of said staff to represent pitches of a musical composition which could be produced by depressing keys of said keyboard; and   depressing, on said musical instrument, keys of said keyboard corresponding to said pitches represented by said noteheads visually depicted on said staff, with a white key being depressed when a notehead appears in one of said spaces of said staff and a black key being depressed when a notehead appears on one of said lines of said staff, whereby a sound is produced by said musical instrument.   
     
     
       2. The method of claim 1, wherein: said keyboard comprises a standard piano keyboard.   
     
     
       3. The method of claim 1, wherein: said musical instrument is a piano.   
     
     
       4. The method of claim 1, wherein: two outer lines of said three lines, of said second group of lines, are said two lines having visually distinctive, individualized appearances.   
     
     
       5. The method of claim 4, wherein: said two lines having visually distinctive, individualized appearances, are wider, and, therefore more pronounced, than other lines of said group of two of said group of three.   
     
     
       6. A method for producing pitches of sound, the method comprising the steps of: providing a visually observable staff comprising substantially parallel lines arranged in two distinct and separate groups of lines, such that a first group consists of two lines and a second group consists of three lines;   wherein, for said lines of said staff, a first distance is a minimum distance between one of said lines of said first group and one of said lines of said second group, a second distance is a minimum distance between said two lines within said first group, and a third distance is a minimum distance between two of said lines within said second group, with said first distance being the largest of said first distance, said second distance and said third distance; and   wherein, for said lines of said staff, two of the three lines of said second group have visually distinctive, individualized appearances relative to all other of said lines of both said first group and said second group, permitting the staff to be easily distinguished from a conventional staff;   providing a plurality of noteheads visually depicted on said staff to represent pitches of a musical composition;   producing sound, responsive to said noteheads visually depicted on said staff, comprising pitches of sound corresponding to said pitches of said musical composition.   
     
     
       7. The method of claim 6, wherein: the step of producing sound comprises providing a musical instrument and operating said musical instrument responsive to said noteheads visually depicted on said staff to produce pitches of sound corresponding to said pitches of said musical composition.   
     
     
       8. The method of claim 7, wherein: spaces next to said lines of said staff represent a first plurality of pitches corresponding to white pitches producible by depressing keys on a standard piano keyboard and said lines of said staff represent a second plurality of pitches corresponding to black keys on a standard piano keyboard; and   each of said noteheads is visually depicted as being one of said spaces or on one of said lines to provide correspondence between the position of each notehead, on said staff and the keys of a standard piano keyboard.   
     
     
       9. The method of claim 8, wherein: said musical instrument comprises a keyboard having white and black keys, and wherein said step of operating said instrument comprises depressing keys on said keyboard corresponding to said pitches represented by said noteheads visually depicted on said staff;   a white key on said keyboard is being depressed when a notehead is visually depicted on said staff in one of said spaces and a black key is being depressed when one of said noteheads is visually depicted on said staff on one of said lines.   
     
     
       10. The method of claim 6, wherein: two outer lines of said three lines, of said second group of lines are said two lines having visually distinctive, individualized appearances.   
     
     
       11. The method of claim 10, wherein: said two outer lines of said three lines are wider than all other lines of said first group of lines and said second group of lines.   
     
     
       12. The method of claim 6, wherein: a first portion of said noteheads are each depicted as being located on a line and a second portion of said noteheads are each depicted as being located in a space adjacent to a line; and   each notehead of said first portion of noteheads has a distinctive appearance relative to each notehead of said second portion of noteheads.   
     
     
       13. The method of claim 12, wherein: within an octave, each notehead representing a pitch of said musical composition has a different visual appearance than a notehead representing any other pitch of said musical composition.   
     
     
       14. The method of claim 13, wherein: depicted on said staff are at least five noteheads of substantially different shape, with the shape of each of said at least five noteheads being selected from the group of notehead shapes substantially as shown in FIGS. 9, 10 and 11.   
     
     
       15. The method of claim 6, wherein: each of said three lines of said second group are evenly spaced a uniform spacing distance from any adjacent of said three lines, and said two lines of said first group are separated by said spacing distance.